Berlin issues a handsome birthday box.

Universal takes Karajan’s Ring and gives it a refreshing spring cleaning.

Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic have set new standards in these performances with the wind breathtakingly behind their virtuosic wings.

Berlin Philharmonic principal clarinettist Andreas Ottensamer co-founded the Bürgenstock Festival, which takes place near Lucerne, in 2011, and his Berlin Phil colleagues Emmanuel Pahud and Albrecht Meyer are regular guests. This recording is the third released by Ottensamer and friends as part of the Bürgenstock Festival Edition. As Ottensamer writes in his booklet notes, “The spirit of the Mannheim School, being all about finding new ways of making music and trying to unify all aspects of musicianship, lives on in the mindset of our festival.” Thus New Era pays homage to, via orchestral music featuring solo clarinet, a selection of composers associated with or inspired by the extraordinary music coming out of the Mannheim court of the Elector of Pfalzbayern in the 18th century – music that indeed heralded a new era. Johann Stamitz (1717–1757) was one of the chief instigators of the spirit of relentless musical experimentation and innovation that prevailed at court during this time. His Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra in B Flat opens, with Ottensamer performing on a modern clarinet, as he does in the following work, Franz Danzi’s Concertino for Clarinet, Bassoon and Orchestra in B Flat, where he is joined by Meyer playing… Continue…

Argentine cellist Sol Gabetta catapulted into public consciousness when she won the Crédit Suisse Young Artist Award in 2004 and subsequently debuted with the Vienna Philharmonic and Valery Gergiev. She was 23 then, but had won her first competition at the age of ten, and now enjoys a hectic international career as one of the world’s most famous and highly-regarded cellists. Her wide-ranging repertoire includes three albums of works by Vivaldi and his contemporaries, recorded with Capella Gabetta, the ensemble she founded with her brother Andrés. In addition to core 19th-century repertoire, she is also committed to contemporary compositions, and has recorded an album of works by Latvian composer Pe¯teris Vasks which included his Second Cello Concerto, written especially for Gabetta. This latest album features two 20th-century masterworks – the first, arguably the most famous cello concerto in the repertoire; the second, virtually unknown by comparison. Elgar’s concerto was written in 1919, with the dark pall of WWI hanging heavily upon its composer, who wrote, next to its entry in his catalogue of works, “Finis. R.I.P.”. Its 1919 premiere was a disaster, and it languished in popularity until recorded by Jacqueline du Pré in 1965 (incredibly, she was only 20)… Continue reading Get…

The British maestro on climbing the mountain, the lessons of history and avoiding chauffeur-driven limo Beethoven. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

Sir Simon’s new Berlin cycle on the orchestra’s home label combines the HIP with a roundly Romantic underbelly. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

And now for something completely different? By general agreement, Rattle’s 2003 cycle of Beethoven symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic was inconsistent and hastily packaged, the conscious Haydnesque jollities of the First and Second symphonies – clearly Rattle had been listening to John Eliot Gardiner and Frans Brüggen – rubbing awkwardly against visions of the Third, Fifth and Ninth swept along by broad sweeps of Romanticism, like Rattle had also swallowed huge chunks of Wilhelm Furtwängler. Rattle is on record as saying that Furtwängler’s 1942 recording of the Choral Symphony epitomises everything genuinely great about the Berlin Philharmonic, its string sound in particular. And here’s the great paradox of this fresh Beethoven cycle, recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic in October 2015 – a decade on from his first attempt, Rattle has managed to make the yin and yang of HIP and a Romantic underbelly coexist and these Berlin Philharmonic readings sound less obviously indebted to its own heritage. “You can try to make [Beethoven] agree with himself when often he’s fighting with himself,” Rattle says in the bonus documentary included as part of the package. “But I have… Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a…

ANAM student Harry Bennetts has landed a place at the prestigious Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Academy. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in

The Oscar-winning Australian actress will be an official representative of the United Nations around the world.

The final years of Herbert von Karajan’s tenure as Principal Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic had descended into chaos; egos clashed and Karajan was moonlighting with indecent regularity in Vienna. Claudio Abbado gradually pieced goodwill back together when he was appointed as successor in 1989, his collegiate approach contrasting noticeably with Karajan’s despotic tendencies. Abbado’s valedictory appearance with the orchestra in May 2013 thus marked the end of an era, an occasion wistfully celebrated in this latest release from Berlin Philharmoniker Recordings. Two works, which Abbado had recorded previously, were on the programme: Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, which turned out to be a characteristically shrewd piece of programming. Abbado’s earlier Midsummer Night’s Dream (also with BPO) might have included more numbers, but the chimerical gleam of those hanging-in-the-air opening woodwind chords gives notice that here is something very special. The fleeting, skipping Scherzo, with its sinuous harmonic sleights-of-hand, is as fantastical as the triadic, muscular brass writing of the Wedding March is rooted in the earth. Deborah York and Stella Doufexis, and the choir, balance well-enunciated weight against suggestive fancy. Abbado’s perspective on Berlioz is far removed from Bernstein’s blood and guts cinematic view –…

We talk to the apostle of authenticity about his life and his Schubert recordings with the Berlin Philharmonic. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in